We’re delighted to let you know that Yeshiva Schools has just been awarded a $50,000 grant by the Pittsburgh Foundation. We’ll be using this money to fund a variety of different initiatives, including purchasing membership to the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE). CIJE helps Jewish day schools upgrade their science and technology programs. They will provide training, materials, and curricula to our middle and high school science teachers, as well as professional development sessions. Our school will also receive a CIJE mentor who will liaise with teachers, visit and observe science classes, assist with training, etc.

CIJE also hosts Innovation Days, or regional science fairs with other Jewish schools, where students have the chance to share their experiments and projects and compete to win medals. Other fun programs include CIJE Tank, in which students use science and technology to propose solutions to common problems and then pitch them to a panel, as well as robotics, engineering, and start-up nation initiatives. 

The grant funds will also be used to purchase technology and curriculum materials, including a 3D printer for each science lab, which can be used in a variety of science lessons, including printing historical artifacts, replicating fossils, making scaled models of molecules and the solar system, and more. 

Our thanks to Mrs. Engle, Dr. Conner, and Mrs. Shollar, who have been working on the grant application since this past July. We’re enormously grateful to the Pittsburgh Foundation for their support!